ISTANTE COLLECTIVE

Istante Collective is a versatile ensemble committed to reaching out to new audiences through innovative programming in an informal concert environment. Its members include many principal players from the most prestigious European historical performance ensembles (Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras, Europa Galante, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BachWerkVokal, Arcangelo).

For the last 10 years Istante has been the resident ensemble of the Baroquestock Festival, supported and hosted by Heath Street Baptist Church in Hampstead, London. 

Istante is grateful to Continuo Foundation and Vox Musica for their regular support of their diverse projects. In addition to the annual festival in late spring, Istante offers a ‘Little things in Odd Shapes’ concert series featuring chamber music in unusual combinations. The autumn series includes ‘Italian Sounds in London’, supported by the Italian Cultural Institute, as well as regular Bach cantata performances. Operatic highlights include staged productions of Haydn’s ‘Lo Speziale’; Salieri’s ‘Falstaff’; Handel’s ‘Rinaldo’; Pergolesi’s ‘Livietta e Tracollo’; J. Blow’s ‘Venus and Adonis’, Lully’s ‘La naissance de Venus’ and Purcell’s ‘King Arthur’.
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Istante’s debut album, ‘Little things in Odd Shapes’, featuring chamber music by L. Boccherini and M. Haydn, was released by Novantiqua Records in 2018. The ensemble is currently working on a multi-disc recording project revolving around the late 18th-Century oboist L.A.Lebrun.

The latest recording of Istante Collective, together with contertenor Filippo Mineccia, is ‘Arias for Giovanni Rubinelli’, and will be released by Glossa the 19th of June 2026